India, Pakistan Conflict Started With A Granny: Report

Indian soldiers patrol along a barbed wire fence on the Line of Control in Kashmir, December 4, 2003.

The Hindu newspaper has reported that a spate of violence between India and Pakistan in the divided region of Kashmir that allegedly led to the death of three soldiers this week has its roots in the decision of an 70-year-old Indian woman to leave for Pakistan-held Kashmir.

According to The Hindu, Reshma Bi, a native of Churunda, an Indian village close to the de facto border, crossed the Line of Control in September to go and live with her sons in Pakistan-held Kashmir.

The Line of Control is covered with heavy coils of barbed wire – a fence put in place by India and completed in 2004 – and dotted with Indian and Pakistani check-posts But people still manage to squeeze through undetected.

Ms. Bi’s flight to Pakistan-held Kashmir caused concern in India about weakness in the fences around Churunda, the newspaper said. In response, the Indian army began to build construct observation towers on the border to beef up security, it added, prompting a furious response from Pakistan.

Attempts to reach spokesmen for the Indian and Pakistan army were not successful.

Tensions continued to rise. In October, India’s army said Pakistan’s army fired mortars across the line of Control, killing three villagers in Churunda. Pakistan said it was returning fire from the Indian side of the frontier. Indian denied it had fired.

Towards the end of the year, shots regularly were fired across the Line of Control, according to both sides.

And then, on Sunday, Pakistan claims that one Pakistani soldier was killed and another injured in an unprovoked attack by India on a Pakistani post, according to a press release by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Pakistan complained to the United Nations about this incident.

India’s External Affairs Ministry denied the allegations and said Pakistan troops had begun the shooting on Sunday, damaging the house of a civilian. Indian troops returned fire in a controlled manner, the ministry said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the Indian army says soldiers from Pakistan made an armed incursion into the Poonch district of India-held Kashmir and killed two Indian soldiers, severing the head of one of the corpses. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the incident.

India summoned Pakistan’s envoy to New Delhi on Wednesday to protest the alleged killing of the soldiers. India also asked the Pakistani government to investigate the incident, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Pakistan officials say the country is ready for both incidents to be probed by the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan.

In a press briefing, Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General, said Wednesday that the observer group has received a complaint from Pakistan about the alleged incident on Jan. 6 and will conduct an investigation. He added that the U.N. has not received a complaint from India about the alleged killing of Indian soldiers by the Pakistani army.

The website of the U.N. Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan says that India has not lodged a complaint with the group since January 1972, though Pakistan has continued to lodge complaints and report ceasefire violations.

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